The Claas Group has opened a new Tractor Testing and Validation Centre at Trangé, near Le Mans. Close to the Claas tractor assembly plant at Le Mans, the facility will encourage important synergies, the sharing of skills and cooperation between Claas Tractor’s product development, industrialisation and after-sales departments.
Although the site is private, it is still very much outward-facing, and partnerships been forged with the Université du Maine, the acoustics laboratory, the agricultural colleges, the college of surveyors and the automotive institute. This will enable Claas Tractors to continue to play an important role in energising industry in the Sarthe region.
The centre has a testing zone that can deal with up to 80 tractors at any one time; larger prototype development workshops; and from late 2012 it will have more efficient test benches.
The new Testing and Validation Centre represents a new era in the development of Claas tractors. It will provide a further step on the road to excellence and an essential stage in the company’s international development strategy – already 70 per cent of the tractors produced at Le Mans are exported.
The number of permanent employees in the R&D and projects departments at Claas has risen by 80 per cent and teams based there are currently involved in a product development excellence programme designed to enable them to provide efficient support as part of the company’s tractors strategy.
For more information visit: www.claas.co.uk.
